. >> if we had had a grand bargain that the president and john boehner were working on and came close to having, and we may have to look at that issue again after the election. would that have been the right medicine at the time not only to raise the debt ceiling but to get the economic recovery in a better place? >> they were focusing, i think, on deficit reduction without an awareness, i think, about how weak the economy was. that was the same problem with bowles simpson. if you look at bowles simpson it was predicated on a fairly quick recovery of the economy. pay no attention to the turmoil going on in europe. the slowdown in asia. and if their prediction of, you know -- >> those two things are connected. >> yeah, exactly. >> the less demand in europe is affecting the slowdown in china. >> and we're in a globalized world where those two slowdowns effect us. so if they have been right that global growth was strong and american economy would have-- was going recover strongly, then that would have been a time to try to put our fiscal house in order, you know. >> you think the majorit